KINSTON, N.C. — Officers used pepper spray and arrested a man at Walmart store in Kinston when a fight broke out among customers late Thursday, police said.

Police said they hired a couple off-duty officers to work as security for Black Friday sales, including an electronics sale for which customers had to have a ticket to be line.

As employees began to set up the electronics displays around midnight Thursday, police said, the customers became restless and were told to stay in line, but a disturbance broke out.

An officer fired a short burst of pepper spray in the air to calm down the crowd, police said.

Gordon Jackson, 58, a former Kinston police officer, was arrested. Police said he didn't follow instructions.

Jackson said that a fight never happened and that people were jockeying for position in line. He said a police officer over-reacted by using pepper spray.

"He was raining it over the whole crowd, so it will rain down on their heads," he told WNCT News. "Some of it got my granddaughter in her face and eyes, and she had to go the emergency room because she's asthmatic."

Shopper Angel Bunting said the incident began when a man waiting in line for cell phones marked down from $200 to $35 fell into a display

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FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Gunfire rang out at Cross Creek Mall in Fayetteville early Friday as shoppers lined up for post-Thanksgiving sales, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said.

Spokeswoman Debbie Tanna said the first shots were fired outside the mall near the food court entrance around 2 a.m. One suspect ran inside the mall, and a second ran after him, firing more shots. No one was injured.

Shoppers left the mall and some smaller stores closed in the wake of the shooting.

Tanna said detectives are reviewing surveillance video from the mall to identify the shooters. More details haven't been released.

Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to call the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office at 910-323-1500.

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I don't understand why people go to those things. I have gone once and it sucked. Most of the deals are non even deals. Stores usually mark up their products a few weeks before black friday then return them to almost the same price. Home Depot actually marked up a $399 miter saw to $599 then returned it to $399 on black friday.

Here's what I read earlier.

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Black Friday shopper pepper sprays rivals

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The holiday shopping season got off to an ugly start as a shopper pepper-sprayed rivals in a battle for bargains and robbers shot shoppers to steal their Black Friday purchases, police said on Friday.

Up to 20 people were injured after a shopper used pepper spray in California to get an edge on rivals and in a second incident, off-duty officers in North Carolina used pepper spray to subdue rowdy shoppers waiting for consumer electronics.

In San Leandro, California, a man was in critical but stable condition after being shot by robbers in a parking lot outside a Walmart at 1:50 a.m. local time, Sergeant Mike Sobek said.

The man was in a group of men headed for their car after shopping when robbers confronted them and a fight ensued, Sobek said. The man's shopping companions held down one of the robbers until police arrived and took him into custody.

"It doesn't look like they got away with anything. They weren't expecting these guys to fight back," Sobek said.

In Los Angeles, authorities were reviewing security tapes to track down a Hispanic woman in her 30s who pepper-sprayed a crowd at a Walmart as customers swarmed for Xboxes on sale late Thursday, Los Angeles police Sergeant J. Valle said.

"They were opening a package to try to get some Xboxes from a crate and this lady pepper-sprayed a whole bunch of people in order to gain an advantage over the Xboxes," Valle said.

Firefighters treated and released up to 20 people injured in the incident at a Walmart in Northridge, California, authorities said. It was not known whether the woman actually purchased the Xboxes, Valle said.

Off-duty police officers working as security for a Walmart in Kinston, North Carolina, used pepper spray to keep shoppers at bay who were anxious for the midnight Thursday start of an electronics sale, authorities said.

The already "rowdy" atmosphere intensified when employees began to bring out palettes of electronics merchandise, Kinston director of public safety Bill Johnson said.

When customers tried to grab merchandise from the palettes before the sale time, the off-duty officers, who were hired as store security guards for the event, discharged pepper spray to restore order, Johnson said. One man was arrested for failing to follow officers' orders, he said.

"No one was pepper sprayed in the face," Johnson said, adding that he was unaware of any injuries.

Walmart is the U.S. discount store unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. A company spokesman, Greg Rossiter, said violence at a handful of stores marred an otherwise safe start to the holiday shopping season at thousands of Walmart stores.

The San Leandro shooting "was a senseless act of violence and our thoughts and prayers are with the customer and his family during this difficult time," Rossiter said.

In another incident, a woman was shot in the foot by a robber who accosted her in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, early Friday demanding her purse as she and companions put their purchases into a car trunk near a Walmart, police said.

When Tonia Robbins, 55, screamed, one of her companions reached into the car, pulled out a revolver stashed in the console and pointed it at the robber, who ran off with Robbins' purse, valued at $40, police said. She then fired two or three warning shots into the air.

I don't understand why people go to those things. I have gone once and it sucked. Most of the deals are non even deals. Stores usually mark up their products a few weeks before black friday then return them to almost the same price. Home Depot actually marked up a $399 miter saw to $599 then returned it to $399 on black friday.

Agreed, classic American materialism at it's finest. TV says go, the masses go. They're shooting people in Fayette-nam over this stuff, it happens every year.

I hate going and getting in the middle of that crap but went with my wife on black friday to the midnight sale at walmart. I mainly went cause i didnt want her going alone.

I went for a similar reason. Me and my fiancee got some funny looks from a guy that slammed into us and felt our ccw's. He then called the cops on us for having guns legally concealed in the parking lot of bass pro. That was the 2nd time i had cops called bc i had my colts on me in a public place in 3 weeks.

They ought to ban you from this forum for posting that video. That woman's pants were just about to fall down.

Just watching the chaos in that video just about gave me a panic attack.

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Originally Posted by texaswoodworker

I don't understand why people go to those things. I have gone once and it sucked. Most of the deals are non even deals. Stores usually mark up their products a few weeks before black friday then return them to almost the same price. Home Depot actually marked up a $399 miter saw to $599 then returned it to $399 on black friday.

I heard the best deals to be had are the first two weeks of December. That's when the sales are good and the prices are at the lowest. The Black Friday deals are mostly to lure people into the store where they may get one or two good deals but the store has the hopes that you'll buy more items while you're there.

__________________Honor Student: School of Hard KnocksTo the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.Quando Omni Flunkus Moritatus

My immediate family is not allowed to attend anything with large unruly crowds. It's simply to unpredictable. Individuals are for the most part, intelligent, but large group pack mentality is inherently dangerous.

With all the preparation and common sence excersized by most here to AVOID conflict, I find it hard to believe that our members would forget everything they know and step into this mayhem for a discount.